Mornin' everyone, ' While it is set in the Catskills area of New York state' clicked with me, makes me think of the little double daffodil I have. I'm pretty sure I know the answer to all three.

Annette

Oh Annette - now I am off to Google daffodils!!

Nancy.

The Catskills are an interesting area. The low, old mountains have an air of dark foreboding; mists hang over the thick trees till late morning. We went through there by boat many years ago. Very eerie indeed.

Nancy.

No idea on any of these.

Anyone recognize this little beauty?

Annette

Annette, that is beautiful, and my google search turned nothing up!! I do prefer the daffs with hollow trumpets, though.

Bobbie - you do know this famous American writer. Perhaps you are feeling sleepy, though.

Nancy.

DH who was an English teacher once has a couple of suggestions. I will ponder them as I do the wash.

We are being told to keep cold water running to prevent frozen water mains, which is happening all over the area due to the unusual depth of the frost. At night we leave a slight stream going in the bathroom but days we use the water enough since we are home most days. The temp coming out of the faucets is 41 F.

Beautiful daffodil, Annette. Don't know the variety if that was a clue.

Nancy, not a picture of mine, mine aren't blooming yet. When my grandmother read me this story when I was very young I cried when she got to the part where he couldn't find his little dog.

Annette

Okay, I know 1 and 2 but need more clues for 3. I do get sleepy around 4 p.m. when if I don't find something to work through it I have to take a nap.

Annette, think I have the name of the daffodil. Great clue.

Well, let's see - the bowlers were friends of the man who accidentally opened up Rupert's Land to trade. They were set adrift on the bay that carries his name, never to been seen again - perhaps. The man who cried for his lost dog would disagree, for he saw them near the river named for the Captain. Hmmmmm......

Nancy

Late to the party-I have been working ALL day on paperwork for school. Ugh. No slacker, I! More of the same tomorrow. :(

Anyway, I am so excited! I know all three of these. Love the Catskills region. I would love to explore the area more. Now, maybe that is something for this summer. No point waiting 20 more years (that's how long it has been since I drove through there).

Cynthia

I'm writing from Florida where we just had a nice dinner on our balcony, literally a stone's throw from the water, except if you actually threw a stone it would bounce off the screened walls. I can't say I have any idea about any of the three answers. The sleepy clues have me thinking of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow or Rip Van Winkle. That's about it for me, I'm afraid.

I'll look in again in a while.

TM

Well TM, late to the party or not your stones have hit the 2nd question dead on - sort of how you'd like hit your 9-pins. And Cynthia, probably faster than one of our characters.

Nancy.

:) New York really is a beautiful state. Except for winter, that is-too cold for me. I would feel I had been cast adrift if I had to spend the whole winter there. I think you have the right idea, TM. Will you get a chance to do any boating or is that just at home?

I have been so tired this week, I think I could sleep for 20 years, too!

Oh and sort of off-topic, but I may not be able to come up with anything by morning. I will try, but it has been a bit of a rough week with several of my kiddoes who are pretty violent when they lose control. I ended up with three 11.5 hour days just trying to keep up with it all(and putting the room to rights after it was torn apart several times). Not really whining (well, maybe a little) and not looking for sympathy-just hoping you understand and forgive if you don't find a question in the morning!

Cynthia

Hey, Cynthia. I say sleep in and take the day off from everything. We'll all live without a trivia question. I know that I'm sleeping in and going fishing. No boat for me here, though, strictly shore and pier fishing.

So I got close to something, huh, Nancy? Cool.

TM

Here's my answers...

Washington Irving,
Rip Van Winkle and Legend of Sleepy Hollow
Henry Hudson's crew.

Yes Cyn, do take the day off. I'm off to Seedy Sunday early tomorrow so won't be around for most of the day.

Annette

This post was edited by aftermidnight on Sat, Mar 1, 14 at 22:46

My answers for the first two are the same as Annette's. No answer for the third.

Okay with me if you take tomorrow off, Cynthia. I remember long hours both at school and home and attending school activities. Fortunately I never had to put my room back together or recover mentally and physically from chaos in the classroom.

Would love to be with you in FL, TM. Temps to be a record low high tomorrow, barely above zero. By the end of the week we might get above freezing. This cold weather has to end soon.

Oh, I think the daffodil must be Rip Van Winkle.

Okay, toying with ideas for today. Wouldn't you know that I couldn't get to sleep last night, so tried to put the time to good use. I will have questions (yes, multiple ones again) within the hour!

Anyway, Nancy, here are my guesses:

1. Washington Irving
2. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle
3. Henry Hudson's crew were the old men playing nine pins

Cynthia, who is off to mine the stars (first hint-ha)

Well, I believe everybody got the answers!! Bravo.

Washington Irving (April 3, 1783 - November 28, 1859) was an American author, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat of the early 19th century. He is best known for his short stories "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle", both of which appear in his book The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. It was published serially throughout 1819 and 1820. His historical works include biographies of George Washington, Oliver Goldsmith and Muhammad, and several histories of 15th-century Spain dealing with subjects such as Christopher Columbus, the Moors, and the Alhambra. Some of the stories are set in New York's Catskill Mountains, but Irving later admitted, "When I wrote the story, I had never been on the Catskills."

Apart from "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" -the pieces which made both Irving and The Sketch Book famous - other tales include "Roscoe", "The Broken Heart", "The Art of Book-making", "A Royal Poet", "The Spectre Bridegroom", "Westminster Abbey", "Little Britain", and "John Bull". Irving's stories were highly influenced by German folktales;[1] "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" was inspired by a folktale recorded by Karl Musäus.

In 1609 Hudson was chosen by merchants of the Dutch East India Company in the Netherlands to find an easterly passage to Asia. He was told to sail through the Arctic Ocean north of Russia, into the Pacific and so to the Far East. Hudson departed Amsterdam on 4 April in command of the Dutch ship Halve Maen (Half Moon). Having heard rumors of a passage to the Pacific, by way of John Smith of Jamestown and Samuel de Champlain, Hudson and his crew decided to try to seek a westerly passage through North America. The Native Americans who gave the information to Smith and Champlain were likely referring to what are known today as the Great Lakes. On 3 September he reached the estuary of the river that initially was called the "North River" or "Mauritius" and now carries his name. He was not the first to discover the estuary, though, as it had been known since the voyage of Giovanni da Verrazzano in 1524.
In 1610, Hudson managed to get backing for another voyage, this time under the English flag. The funding came from the Virginia Company and the British East India Company. At the helm of his new ship, the Discovery, he stayed to the north. Excitement was very high due to the expectation that the ship had finally found the Northwest Passage through the continent. On 25 June, the explorers reached what is now the Hudson Strait at the northern tip of Labrador. Following the southern coast of the strait on 2 August, the ship entered Hudson Bay. Hudson spent the following months mapping and exploring its eastern shores, but he and his crew did not find a passage to Asia. In November, however, the ship became trapped in the ice in the James Bay, and the crew moved ashore for the winter. When the ice cleared in the spring of 1611, Hudson planned to use his Discovery to further explore Hudson Bay with the continuing goal of discovering the Passage; however, most of the members of his crew ardently desired to return home. Matters came to a head and much of the crew mutinied in June. A narrative tells how the mutineers set Hudson, his teenage son John, and seven crewmen, "men who were either sick and infirm or loyal to Hudson" adrift from the Discovery in a small shallop, an open boat, effectively marooning them in Hudson Bay. And they were never seen again - except by Van Winkle.

So, for Annette, Cynthia and Bobbie:

And to TM, for a fairly accurate stone's throw:

Thanks for playing - see you all next week!!

Nancy.

Thanks for the stars, Nancy! That was a terrific question. Haven't though of Washington Irving in a long time, but his stories are so much fun. Always felt sorry for Hudson.

They are now predicting up to a foot of snow here. That could keep me home almost all week. Smiling here!

Cynthia, who has not accomplished half of what she intended today. Did get bird seed and supplies for my two new students who seem to have any despite having been in school elsewhere this year. Sigh. Thank goodness for the tax deduction up to $250 for teachers.

I'll take three stars and an explanation for the bowling story. I am familiar with the mutiny and Hudson et al set adrift but do not remember the bowling part.

Happy to make that trade, Bobbie:

On nearer approach, he was still more surprised at the singularity of the stranger’s appearance. He was a short, square-built old fellow, with thick bushy hair, and a grizzled beard. His dress was of the antique Dutch fashion - a cloth jerkin strapped around the waist - several pair of breeches, the outer one of ample volume, decorated with rows of buttons down the sides, and bunches at the knees. He bore on his shoulders a stout keg, that seemed full of liquor, and made signs for Rip to approach and assist him with the load. Though rather shy and distrustful of this new acquaintance, Rip complied with his usual alacrity, and mutually relieving one another, they clambered up a narrow gully, apparently the dry bed of a mountain torrent. As they ascended, Rip every now and then heard long rolling peals, like distant thunder, that seemed to issue out of a deep ravine, or rather cleft between lofty rocks, toward which their rugged path conducted. He paused for an instant, but supposing it to be the muttering of one of those transient thunder showers which often take place in mountain heights, he proceeded. Passing through the ravine, they came to a hollow, like a small amphitheater, surrounded by perpendicular precipices, over the brinks of which impending trees shot their branches, so that you only caught glimpses of the azure sky and the bright evening cloud. During the whole time, Rip and his companion had labored on in silence; for though the former marveled greatly what could be the object of carrying a keg of liquor up this wild mountain, yet there was something strange and incomprehensible about the unknown that inspired awe and checked familiarity. 20
On entering the amphitheater, new objects of wonder presented themselves. On a level spot in the center was a company of odd-looking personages playing at ninepins. They were dressed in a quaint, outlandish fashion: some wore short doublets, others jerkins, with long knives in their belts, and most had enormous breeches, of similar style with that of the guide’s. Their visages, too, were peculiar: one had a large head, broad face, and small, piggish eyes; the face of another seemed to consist entirely of nose, and was surmounted by a white sugar-loaf hat set off with a little red cock’s tail. They all had beards, of various shapes and colors. There was one who seemed to be the commander. He was a stout old gentleman, with a weather-beaten countenance; he wore a laced doublet, broad belt and hanger, high-crowned hat and feather, red stockings, and high-heeled shoes, with roses in them. The whole group reminded Rip of the figures in an old Flemish painting, in the parlor of Dominie Van Schaick, the village parson, and which had been brought over from Holland at the time of the settlement. 21
What seemed particularly odd to Rip, was that though these folks were evidently amusing themselves, yet they maintained the gravest faces, the most mysterious silence, and were, withal, the most melancholy party of pleasure he had ever witnessed. Nothing interrupted the stillness of the scene but the noise of the balls, which, whenever they were rolled, echoed along the mountains like rumbling peals of thunder.

There you go!!

See you next weekend. Nancy.

Thanks, Nancy.

Well TM, late to the party or not your stones have hit the 2nd question dead on - sort of how you'd like hit your 9-pins. And Cynthia, probably faster than one of our characters.

Nancy.